Tim Sherwood has issued his verdict on the performance of Eric Dier after the Tottenham Hotspur loanee started for Bayern Munich in the second-leg of their Champions League semi-final with Real Madrid on Wednesday.
Few Spurs fans would have imagined when Eric Dier left in the January transfer window that he would play a starring role in the Bernabeu, one game away from reaching a Champions League final.
Unfortunately for Bayern Munich, their journey in the competition is over after a controversial 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid. However, it is fair to say that Dier gave a brilliant account of himself against Los Blancos.
Until the 88th minute, Bayern had kept Real out. As shown by Whoscored, no Bayern player completed more passes than the 76 from Dier. Meanwhile, the £4 million man also made seven clearances and won two tackles.
Tim Sherwood lauds Eric Dier despite Bayern Munich defeat
And speaking on talkSPORT (broadcast on 9/5; 8:13), Tim Sherwood suggested that he has been amazed by what Dier has been able to do since leaving Tottenham in January.
“How good was Eric Dier by the way? He was outstanding. His career has just taken off again. He was absolutely magnificent again last night,” he said.
Tottenham still right to sanction departure in January
Tottenham still made the right decision allowing Dier to leave the club in the winter window, with Ange Postecoglou preferring a centre-back partnership of Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven.
Dier did not appear to be suited to the way Tottenham now want to play, and thus, he spent much of the opening months of the campaign on the sidelines.
When Dier did play over the last couple of years, he did often struggle, struggling to build on what had been a promising start under Antonio Conte.
And in truth, it has been a really poor season for Bayern who will end the year trophy-less with Bayer Leverkusen winning the Bundesliga title.
Dier is not particularly responsible for that, but perhaps not too much, from a Spurs perspective, should be taken from his colossal display in the Bernabeu on Wednesday.
He was absolutely outstanding, and hopefully he goes on and has a successful stay with Bayern, but he was still a player Tottenham needed to move on sooner or later.